Change of Command gets blinkers for stakes debut in Sam F. Davis

Though Change of Command has won his last two starts, trainer Shug McGaughey thinks the horse hasn’t put forth a complete effort in either one. Thus, when Change of Command makes his stakes debut in Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Sam F. Davis at Tampa Bay Downs, he will be equipped with blinkers for the first time.

On Dec. 17, Change of Command won a seven-furlong maiden race by 6 1/2 lengths at Gulfstream Park. Nineteen days later, when stretched out to 1 1/16 miles for the first time, Change of Command had to withstand a stretch challenge from Cardinale, beating that one by a neck.

“He doesn’t finish the way I’d like for him to,” McGaughey said. “The other day, he looked like he was going to win by a hundred and he almost got beat. Hopefully, the blinkers will make him go on and finish.”

Change of Command, a son of Into Mischief who brought $1.05 million as a yearling in 2022, will likely go favored in the Sam Davis, which drew a field of 12. The Sam Davis, run at 1 1/16 miles, offers its top five finishers qualifying points (20-10-6-4-2) toward the May 4 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. It also is the local prep for the Grade 2, $400,000 Tampa Bay Derby run on March 9.

The Sam Davis likely gained a few starters when it was revealed that Locked, a Grade 1-winning 2-year-old from the barn of Todd Pletcher, was going to miss the race due to a temperature.

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McGaughey was always planning to run Change of Command here because he didn’t want to face Fierceness, the 2023 champion 2-year-old male, in last Saturday’s Grade 3 Holy Bull at Gulfstream. Fierceness finished third to Hades.

Change of Command was beaten 13 lengths by Fierceness when the two debuted last August at Saratoga. Change of Command then finished third in his second start before running second to Sierra Leone on Nov. 4 at Aqueduct.

“That was a good race,” McGaughey said.

A productive one, too. Sierra Leone came out of that race to run a terrific second in the Grade 2 Remsen. Fourth-place finisher Tuscan Gold won a maiden in his next start. Deposition and Ridgewood Runner, sixth and seventh on Nov. 4, also have cleared the maiden ranks.

Jose Ortiz had ridden Change of Command to his last two victories, but he was committed to ride Locked before his defection. Tyler Gaffalione will ride Change of Command from post 9.

Ortiz will ride Agate Road, one of two entered in here for Todd Pletcher, a seven-time Sam Davis winner. Agate Road is a graded stakes winner on turf, but Pletcher has been impressed this winter with how well the son of Quality Road has worked on dirt. Agate Road was beaten just a nose in an off-the-turf race on Aug. 5 at Saratoga.

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Pletcher also will run Tireless in the Sam Davis. After making his first two starts on turf, Tireless has a second and a win – the latter at a mile and 40 yards on Jan. 14 at Tampa – in two dirt tries.

West Saratoga won the Grade 3 Iroquois last September at Churchill. Trainer Larry Demeritte was pointing West Saratoga to the Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill before the horse got sick and missed that race. In his lone start this year, West Saratoga finished second, 12 1/2 lengths behind Book’em Danno, in the Pasco Stakes. It did get tight for West Saratoga on the inside at the five-sixteenths pole.

“Most horses don’t re-gather themselves and go on and run,” Demiritte said. “I thought he got a lot out of that race. This field is a little bit stronger than the last field.”

Demeritte said he was fine with drawing post 10.

No More Time was scratched out of last weekend’s Holy Bull Stakes for this race. Trainer Jose D’Angelo, who is 17 for 62 at this meet, said he felt the horse needed one more work to be ready for this race.

Copper Tax, a son of Copper Bullet trained by Gary Capuano, won 5 of 7 starts as a 2-year-old. He finished sixth in the Grade 2 Remsen, a race from which the third-place finisher, Drum Roll Please, won the Jerome Stakes and the seventh-place finisher, Domestic Product, finished second in the Holy Bull.

Crazy Mason and Fulmineo finished one-two in a first-level allowance race on Jan. 14 at Tampa. Patriot Spirit beat Crazy Mason in the Inaugural Stakes on Dec. 2. The undefeated New York-bred Elysian Meadows, Everdoit, and El Principito complete the field.

The Sam Davis goes as race 10 on an 11-race card that includes the $150,000 Suncoast for 3-year-old fillies, the $100,000 Pelican for male sprinters, and the $50,000 Minaret for female sprinters. First post is 12:27 p.m.

Conditions look ideal, with partly cloudy skies and a high of about 80 degrees forecast for Saturday.

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